The phenomenal growth of the Internet has presented service providers with the continual task of responding to the millions of users' demand for reliable and fast access service. Undoubtedly the Internet has revolutionized the way personal communication as well as business communication is conducted. With its expansive reach, the Internet has allowed users to communicate freely without geographic boundaries. In fact, businesses have integrated numerous Internet services, which include e-mail, mailing lists, e-commerce (electronic commerce), and the World Wide Web, into their business processes. Given the diversity of users and applications, prioritization of traffic is needed to ensure efficient transport of information. Traditionally, users have very few parameters that are under their control with respect to such prioritization.
Based on the foregoing, there is a need for efficiently transporting data taking into account the diversity of user requirements and associated traffic types.